Homemade DIY Easy Sourdough Bread Proofing Box 

Man, I came for the sour dough and stayed for the engineering, as a programmer and amateur baker I'm loving it!!

Definitely high tech! I made my own low tech proofing box some time ago. I simply used an Igloo cooler which had a built-in drain plug to run my wires through. I also bought a temperature controlled plug similar to what you used. The advantage of using a proofing box is that it allows you to control the dough fermentation rather than letting the dough fermentation control you. Since using my proofing box, my results have improved tremendously!

Typical German over-engineering lol. I like it. Thanks for sharing.

Add an AI that can detect when the dough sample has risen to the desired percentage rise and sends you a message that your dough is ready for shaping

I had a similar box with a warming mat that I use to liquify tubs of honey that have gone solid. Then I realised that it was the perfect bread maker! A 17w mat gets the temperature to 29c in the box. And thanks to your autolise tips, I now make much better sourdough. Toasted, with butter and honey (of course) it’s the perfect breakfast.

You need to add racoon detection 😂

I've under engineered mine got a hot plate in oven with temperature 🌡️ thermometer you poke In the bread and switch it of at the main if it get to hot. Works👍

Great job!! I love that you showed some of the coding and VI editor bits. For a camera I was thinking you were going to use a fiberoptic camera snake with a USB attachment. Glad to see the wire rack elevating the dough container off of the heating mat a little.

For a moment I thought you were talking German ... or Chinese. I din't understand a thing of the technical stuff. Thank goodness I understand you when you talk about bread. But well done for ingenuity and perseverance.

Maybe it is time for your next book: the sourdough proofing box.. about how to create a smart box to check temperature, ph, computer vision to check volume changes, api calls to a slack channel when the dough is ready etc etc! The worlds of sourdough and programming unite!

I made one in a biggish Ikea plastic box just using a temperature controller unit (Inkbird ITC-308 Digital Temperature Controller) and an incandescent lightbulb for heat. I didn't put a camera in the box though and while the setup works really well, and cost very little to make, I usually end up using my airing cupboard which is always between 26-28 C because my hot water tank sits in the bottom of the cupboard. If I were to make a new one I would make it big enough to hold an entire oven tray as it would be cool to have that option. If I were to go the full hog I would probably also introduce a hygrometer controller and a small humidifier/dehumidifier so humidity could be controlled. Very fancy, but then the box would end up having to be VERY big too.

I've got a 5 Watt heating mat, put it under bowl, cover with a towel, adjust temperature and that's it, 2 for 15 Euro.PS: Well done!!!

If you added a scale / ruler to the sample tube, you could use the time-stamped photos to plot a chart of the volume increase against time. If the results were consistent every time you made the same dough, then you'd be able to use this experiment to work out your exact fermentation time required. On the sample jar too - I've been collecting the dough and keeping it in the fridge. After a few bakes, I tried using this collected sample lump to ferment a new dough (without adding any yeast or starter). It took about 18 hours, but the loaf turned out amazing!

Awesome idea, I am also thinking of building something like this because it is too inaccurate for me in the long run with the sourdough with the heater

Well done! This kind of diy looks very fun! Thank you

Got a good chuckle when I realized I’ve never seen SO’s front page either 😄

I have the brod and Taylor proofing box it is wonderful and I use it for a slow cooker also.

Love your videos - I have a love hate relationship with baking bread and your videos are helping to understand my failures as well as my successes

Amazing work! I normally use my oven with light on, but I have to be careful, it sometimes reaches 28-30ºC ... From 7:38 to 12:10 you just described my daily work among terminals and scripts :D

Stackoverflow saves all of us software people :D I even found their "bread overflow" kind of sibling when I needed some troubleshooting on my sourdough starter!

Thanks for this! After watching your video I made a simpler one out of a foldable insulated food holder and a seeding warming mat.

I wonder if an incubator (like the ones for eggs) can make the job too ? My dad used to have a big one with temp and humidity control, can be interesting for bread.

O! this is so good! Iwas also looking for something like this, i used a coolbox with a warmwaterjar, but it is just slowly cooling down. A reptile mat was also what i found *LOL*

I made a simpler one out of a plastic storage container, a heating pad( for a pulled back), and a few towels. It’s not temperature controlled, but it helps when really cold. I may add a temp control, or redesign to be like this one.

OH wow, I love this so much. What a great idea!

Hi. Great idea and easy build. What dimensions are the Styrofoam box and size of the matt? Thanks

Ingenious especially with the camera set-up! I think you better patent this idea, Hendrik! It may have cost almost as much as a B&T but it must be so satisfying to make your own.

Nice vid. How long does it takes to get the temperature in the box around the 27c with only 16 watt ? I can imagine this will take some time to generate the needed heat.

Thats awesome! i will definitely have to upgrade from the cardboard box to the styro cooler! Have you considered using a narrower straight walled container to bulk/fold in? I find it lets me skip the sample and achieve the same results, and because my batch is the same size the markings never change. no fussing with flattening a tiny piece of dough in a narrow jar.

Enter Summer time: you may want to add a Peltier Cell to cool down your proofer. Nice-useful toy you built , kudos!

Ich habe mir eine Gärbox aus einer alten Weinkiste mit zwei kleinen Glühlampen gebastelt. Funktioniert tadellos und sieht super stylisch aus. Würde dir gerne ein Foto schicken!

Your sourdough videos are always so great. Have you considered a non-baking coding tutorial series? I would love to take any course you could come up with for pretty much anything ever

Hey, I currently have a big box and use bottles with warm water to regulate the heat. This is not very precise and work intense, so I am thinking about using a warming mat as well. However, browsing amazon there is no mat without bad reviews were people state that it broke after a few weeks or month. So I was wondering how your box is doing so far? Are you still using it? Would you still recommend it or is it not precise either? Or just not worth it? Thanks for all the great content btw.

This altogether very amusing to me. I live with a mechanical engineer 😉🤣🤣🤣 However I have a Breville Smart Oven air fryer that has a proofing setting (26C) ...I never thought about it...then i decided to try it. My kitchen is around 24-25 C but it can fluctuate some...this way I know the temperature. It has worked great for me! Cannot wait to see your contraption in action!🤓

Hello, did you make part 2 on how to use a proofing box? Thank you

Great to see a video combining both engineering and sour dough baking! I would like to see some sort of computer vision in your version too with an alarm going off when the proofing is done 😃

I think a custom test cylinder with a sensor (arm connected to a switch) that triggers a email/sms notification when the sample has doubled in size would be an interesting addition.

I bought at used "mini fridge" (in the US) with a clear door. And bought a amphibian/reptile heating pad with thermostat. It's a bit big, but my boyfriend deals with the space that it takes up. If it needs added humidity in the box, I add a cup of boiling water. Probably about $70 US all-in, but it was a great find getting a clean. clear-door refrigerator. the size of this fridge is probably the size as a typical one in an apartment in europe lol

Not sure if it’s been mentioned but the temp will more than likely be hotter than what the probe is detecting as it’s so far away from the heat mat. I’d put the probe in that box along with the dough.

Amazing my dear friend 👍👏🔝

I haven't made mine yet, but I would put a fan in to help the heat circulate. A lot of you use Styrofoam boxes. Does it have to be so well insulated? I plan to use a regular plastic container. What power does the mat need to run at (assuming your Styrofoam box).

I'd really like to see a video where you use the proofer with your overnight no-knead bread recipe. I've had success with that method, but since it's the colder months where I live (Dallas) I've been using a smaller seedling stip under my dough during bulk fermentation. I had been using it for my starter with great results, however, when I've been using it for the bulk fermentation I've been unable to get the right timing down for this stage of the recipe. I end up with frisbees when I bake the next day since I've started doing this, even with just a two-hour bulk fermentation. I'm thinking of making my own proofer with a temperature controller to possibly alleviate the problem but I'm worried that it'll just end up being the same.

Sugestion: To get a more stable temperature, put some water bottles in the box.

Sune (Food geek) recommended this video. Thanks for the DIY ideas.

I use a mini fridge with ink bird controller with heating mat and the fridge plugged in also to the ink bird controller works perfect.

I was waiting for this😍😍

Waiting for the proofer test video. Coming soon?

Good idea smiler to egg incubator i built, you should move the sensor down even with your dough are it will be higher temperature at the dough before it gets to temp to reach sensor unless you add a fan, but then you will make humidity to drop in the box

This is amazing 😉👌

Could you hear me in america screaming? This was so genius of you I couldn’t believe my eyes. I will be making this, maybe a little simpler because I’m not electronically smart at all. But all I need is my dough to be snuggy warm. Winter approaches and where I am is so cold as well. Thank you, and thanks for the laughs you gave to me also.

Oh you did a proofing box that emulates the minimum temp of my kitchen :P lol Greetings from Brazil

I do admire your problem-solving abilities and thrifty approach and also the presumed satisfaction of accomplishment(s) one might get through repeated trial and error! However, had you found this approach actually less costly in the monetary sense? Of course, just purchasing a professionally designed proofing box mightn’t have made the vid terribly interesting. I think it’s the ambition found in your German DNA which has enabled you to succeed time and time again despite the occasional set-back or two. I would have without much hesitation, hoisted the white flag on this experiment - BRAVO and plaudits - apologies for appearing effusive; now go make us some lovely bread - off you go 😆

Sehr sehr geil! Sowas muss ich auch bauen! Yes to Vim and stackoverflow :-) :-D

Wyze Camera is $20 and has Night Vision. Or $40 and you have pan and tilt with the pro.

This gets breadporn to another level!😂

Hmm, I've been eyeing an Active Cooler Box (that can be used in your car at 12V but also has a 220V input). It's around 50 Euros and uses Peltier elements that can be used in reverse (if you flick a switch/dial on the box) to either Cool or Warm the contents. I'm also very frugal when it comes to purchasing stuff, that's why I figured I will buy this box and I'll have 3 independent benefits from it. 1. It's intended purpose of having it in the car for long trips in the summer to keep your stuff cool (soda, sandwiches etc.) 2. Keeping my drinks (juice, beer or wine) cool in my room where I work, since I'm lazy and the fridge is downstairs, lol. (Or when it's hot outside and I want a cool sip of water in the middle of the night, it will be right there near my bed - and because it's Peltier technology and not compressors, it's silent). 3. Whenever I am making dough, bringing it downstairs to the kitchen and trying the warming option and seeing if I can ferment in it.

should have taken the plug apart so the hole in the polystyrene could just be the size of the cable 🤦‍♂️

I use a cooler box. Put in hot water glasses. Works well

quick question: If your temperature inside the box is higher than the initial temperature because of the room temperature, does heating mat has a possibility to lower the temperature inside the box? For example you want to keep your dough or whatever at 20C but it is summer time and it is 30 degrees outside, what is the solution in that case?

What size vial do you use for your sample? I like the idea of using a skinny, tall vessel instead of a jar

Ahaha, I'm a neovim user too, I'm so much into vim that I put vim binding on my terminal (zsh) and even on Firefox (vimium). I don't know if you're going in that rabbithole too, but if you do one day, you won't find any exit.

Awesome!

HIya, I got this idea from the youtube channel Chillichump, he calls it the ferminator. I bought a half-size fridge, a 1 foot ceramic tube heater (low wattage, people in england etc have them permanently in their linen closets keeping away mildew etc) and the inkbird temperature controller. I drilled a hole in the side of the fridge the size of the cable, removed the plug of the heater and inserted the cable reattaching the plug and siliconed around the hole. Drilled another hole of the temperature sensor and inserted that, again siliconing around the hole, the temperature sensor is ~5mm. Turned on the heater which has a thermostat which I adjusted to 26 degrees C going by the sensor. In the inkbird I set the temperature of the inkbird to 26 degreesC with a +/- 3 degree offset and a 3 minute time period to allow either the fridge or heater to kick in depending on what the temperature was doing. The settings of the inkbird can be changed using an app on my phone, it also has a nice graph displaying the temperature variations all the time. Anyway, I start my bread process at 5 am, mix 20 g of starter, (50/50 white and wholemeal, which is a 50 g water, 50 g flour, and , 50 g starter> 100 g water and 100 g of white flour for a levain, I also mix 1kg of flour, 700 ml water and 20g of salt in a separate bowl, place both in the 'fridge' and go to my day job :( ~10 hours later I combine the two into a plastic bulk container. Put it back in the 'ferminator for ~6 hours, in that time I do 2x stretch and folds, each one until the dough doesn't want to stretch anymore. About 10pm that same night I flour the bench divide the dough, do some rudimentary shaping and place in bannetons. This time I put them into my main fridge. Go to work the next day :( come home and bake. The doughs are in the main fridge for ~20 hours, uncovered. I bake using the lodge dutch oven. It's good but not big enough, I hope to get this new dutch oven you plugged at some stage, looks great, is bigger and has awesome handles. I score and bake the dough covered in the dutch oven on the ovens highest setting for 25 mins, I think 230C with the fan, thats' what my thermometer in the oven shows, can't go any higher, then remove the lid and bake for 20 mins at a reduced temperature ~30 degrees lower. Gets a great ear, crust and crumb are amazing, and loads of decent size holes, really attractive. If I don't wnat the larger holes I don't do the stretch and folds. Bread is chewy, soft, great for sandwiches and truly amazing toasted. I slice one up completely, place it in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer, a frozen slice toasts in 3.5 mins and is great. So with the ferminator I keep my starter there all the time (feed twice a week. It develops a skin over the top, just remove this and its good to go for feeding. I only keep 130-150g starter at any one time), there is enough room for the starter, levain, autolysed flour, I could also store 2kg flour and 2 litres of water in there if I wanted, just to keep everything at that temperature. I need to the fridge side of things because temperatues here in Adelaide Australia can get to 40+C, the cooling side of the fridge kicked in heaps of times over the summer. I've been doing this now for a few months and it's clear I need to bake around 4 loaves a week. It's pretty cool, the process fits in so well with everything else, it's very minimal. I really don't think people need to stretch and fold 6 times over 3 hours, or pre-shape etc. The bread I make looks and tastes amazing it springs to ~13.5 cms. The things i've noticed is my starter is quite runny, and even though I use battards the breads kinda turn out like boules, no biggie though, I suspect this has something to do with the flour and water absorption. There you go, sorry for the novel. I enjoy your channel. I really want to expand into adding olives etc to bread, pizza bases and focaccias from sourdough. Cheers man, gluten tag :)

I'm a vi(m) guy too ;)

Super cool, do you still use it? :)

My house is cool even on mild summer days and cold in winter. I put cold water in my slow-cooker and turn the glass lid upside-down. I but a triple-folded fluffy towel on it and then a china bowl on top. Then a metal cooling rack over that. I turn the crock pot on 'keep warm'. This is about the third iteration and doesn't result in any excess heat near the bottom of the proofing bowl or the starter jar. It just creates a warmer area than the rest of the room.

Lol you crack me up, but I'm incredibly impressed. Gute Arbeit! :-D

I have thought about using the hot air exhaust from my gaming computer and funneling it into a proofing box

I have an idea: May be the top of the box could be a doble layer thin transparent acrylic in order you can look into. Double acrylic to make an insulation like winter windows.

Soooo satisfied 👍 like always 😘

God bless you, you beautiful nerd. “This is what the front page of Stack Overflow looks like”. Hee!

How do I get to this awesome Google Sheet you created? I

As adorable as they are, you do NOT want a raccoon in your garden. Or your attic.

I just went with a Brod and Taylor proofing box because it folds up small and fits under the cabinet. Not as satisfying as a DIY but pretty convenient. FYI: I'll send you a box of raccoons if you want, they poop all over my deck and tear down my bird feeders. I'm sure they would love Deutschland.

Danke! So cool

Oh, come on man, after seeing Brod & Taylor Proofer price myself the geek in me also said: you can make this yourself, and yes, with computer vision and notification when the proofing is done. So this is also on my list now =)

What about airflow? Can't you control air exchange to make sure it is ideal? You need some valves or fans. You should paint a stripe on it too. If you put a little speaker in there and play smooth jazz you will enhance the flavor

What temperature would you say is ideal for this? My oven has proofing program and that will keep it at 30C would that work for sourdough?

Huge Python geek here...vi not so much :\ How much RAM/CPU are you using for the camera because I think you *should* be able to run multiple programs on the RPI? In any case, I greatly admire how industrious you are. In comparison, I feel like a slacker - I just bought the Brod & Taylor. ;-)

Won't the heating pad melt the Styrofoam box??

Can one just use a crock pot warm setting???

Da Wärme immer nach oben steigt und somit der obere Teil der Box wärmer wird, würde ich den Temperaturfühler tiefer setzen. Nach unten, dort, wo sich auch der Teig befindet ... oder?

Cooles Video wie immer! Ich habe auch hin und her überlegt wie ich eine solche Box bauen kann. Mittlerweile gibts zum Glück auf Amazon solche Boxen für rund 20 € fix und fertig. Über 200 € ist ja der Wahnsinn.

I’m wondering if the Pi could be programmed to manage the temperature control?

Perfekt!

Uhmmm I'll just be passing vid on to hubby the engineer to figure out how to make me a proofing box. He'll be watching the vid 😆

This reminds me of the German design Lugar pistol, completely over engineered. The Aliquot is unreliable in this box because the dough mass is so much larger than the little piece in the jar. If you had a clear container you could monitor the dough rise directly. This is how I use my homemade proofing box. This video will help your viewers to make a simple or a complex proofing box, so thanks.

Al u need is 1 large roasting pan lid. 1 jar of water from the microwave for 5 minutes. And a towel Take dough place under. Roasting pan Lid. Place. Hot jar of water next to dough place towel over it to trap. Heat. 10 minutes. Done proofing

I know I'm a bit late to the party, but you could cut a plug sized hole with a sharp knife, then cut a cable sized notch and replace the piece you cut out. You could use a styrofoam safe glue or just tape it in place.

A cooling element is missing. Instead of using a box, with a strong heat dispersion, you could use a fridge (I bought a used fridge for 30 euros), so that the box itself is the box and the cooling element (directly connected to the thermocontroller). Cheaper, more room for space and better temperature control.

Greetings from California!

Hahaha..I am one step away from a spy cam on my proofing box. With my business down since Covid...what else do I have to do? Between you and Foodgeek....I am a busy girl...😂🤣.

I crack the door on my micro wave and put a dish towel over the opening the light keeps it just right.

My oven with its light on stays at about 84 F / 29 C. Is that too hot?

turning the heater off when you hit the target temperature is a very primitive way of doing this. i suggest you add a PID controller :)

Great video, but yeah, like many have already commented, everything here could be done WAY cheaper. A RPi4 is overkill for this purpose.

It’s 10€ shipping on the Italian flours?

Trust me, you don't want to see a racoon in your garden. I've been wanting to try making my own proofer. I've got plenty of heat mats from my seed starting adventures. I use vim at work occasionally and am still trying to learn/remember the shortcuts.

This was very cool to watch - but I feel like there is a major design flaw. Won't the metal rack transfer heat to the glass container faster than it will get to the sample jar? And, won't it create a pretty significant temperature gradient from the bottom of the dough to the top? Even with evening this out, I am very worried about the dough! I wonder if you could suspend the dough over the heating element, maybe by pressing a rack into the sides of the styrofoam like you did with the toothpicks, or maybe you could create a horizontal cut all the way around the box, place a rack, and then seal the cut. I hope it works out though! It was fun to watch.

And a script so that it automatically messages you when it's reached the desired rise amount